Saturday, October 15, 2016

BMW wasn't the only company to license the Isetta from
Iso of Italy – there were two others; Romi in Brazil and
VELAM in France.

VELAM stood for
“Véhiculer léger à Moteur”, translated light vehicle with
motor. It was a dedicated company with genuine
production lines set up by Michel Cromback in Anthony Lago’s old Talbot factory
in Suresnes.

VELAM built a variety of
models based both
around the original, and it built one
very sporty looking record
car that was also
registered and used on
the road. In addition,
there was an open Sports
model that appears to
have remained a one-off.

The record/ race car has at times
been called the Isetta Spéciale, at others the Corse
(Course), and even the Aero. In contrast, when it
appeared in the 1957 French Automobile Annual, it was
given no special name.

The aluminium body VELAM prepared for the record car
was cigar shaped, described by some as a ‘mini
Zeppelin’, and was painted French racing blue.

The
record car used the standard base, meaning same
wheelbase and tracks. Width is only a few millimetres
less, but significantly the height is only 590mm to the
top of the body – less than half.

This record class allowed both supercharging and
standard atmospheric engines to compete under the
one heading, but VELAM chose to keep things pretty
standard; the only notable deviation was the use of a
special doped fuel mix that increased power to 12bhp.
For this a special carburettor was fitted and Solex
provided an uprated fuel pump.

A designer by the name of Bianchi created the body
shape which with headrest fitted lifted the height to
730mm. Longer or taller gear ratios were installed too to
make full use of the more streamlined body shape and
additional power. With 12bhp the standard VELAM
bodied car would expect to be capable of 85kph max,
but the best lap at Montlhéry resulted in 118.55kph,
with many consistent laps at 117kph.

Wheels were
fitted with Englebert
tyres run at 2.6 to 2.8
bars instead of the
standard 1.2 to 1.4
bar.

On 30th July 1957
Bianchi and Claude
drove to 7
international class K
records, with a further
11 taken between the
30th September and
the 10th January
1957.

Stilts are added, the trailer is raised off the tires, and then the rolling assembly is removed and the trailer is lowered to the parking lot. The roof signs are unfolded to a raised position

the sides are folded up, and the inner sides are lowered down

the cars are unwrapped, and the guard rails are installed

Its fixed expenses list for four weeks for his small Formula 1 circuit: reantal cost for location is € 1,900 plus electricity and water, that's € 4,200 costs. Plus traveling expenses, means this has to make € 5,500 before it becomes profitable, and that is not taking into account the cost of the trailer/ride.

He left Germany at age 22, went to work for White Sewing Machines, and a year later began Triumph Cycles. WW1 proved to be the kick off for success, and by 1918, Triumph was Englands largest motorbike manufacturer.

66 employees of Triumph were KIA in WW1, and Bettman commissioned a memorial for them built in Coventry's London Road cemetery in 1921

In the 30's the car and motorcycle business suffered from the great depression, and they were bought up by Ariel